This originally appeared in Friday’s edition of The A Block, Awful Announcing’s daily newsletter with the latest sports media news, commentary, and analysis. Sign up here and be the first to know everything going on in the sports media world. As the saying often goes, first impressions can mean everything. And yesterday, Fox imparted viewers…
After a 2025 French Open final that featured major stars on both the men’s and women’s sides, TNT Sports saw an expected viewership decline this year absent any star power. Sunday’s men’s final between German Alexander Zverev and Italian Flavio Cobolli averaged just 1.3 million viewers across TNT and truTV, marking a 20-year viewership low…
Fox assembled one of the most credentialed soccer studio teams in American television history for this World Cup — Thierry Henry, Clarence Seedorf, Peter Schmeichel, Javier Hernández, Alexi Lalas, Carli Lloyd, Clint Dempsey — and the analyst it is most counting on to make the whole thing work has never done studio television before, has…
All Times Eastern Australian Rules Football AFL Men’s — Round 14 Melbourne Demons vs. Essendon Bombers — Fox Soccer Plus, 11 p.m. North Melbourne Demons vs. West Coast Eagles — Fox Soccer Plus, 2 a.m. (Saturday) Port Adelaide Power vs. Sydney Swans — Fox Soccer Plus, 5:30 a.m. (Saturday) Beach Volleyball AVP League Week 3,…
The NFL has found itself in the crosshairs of the federal government in recent months amid a not-so-subtle pressure campaign from Fox Corporation founder Rupert Murdoch. The league, which recently began an effort to renegotiate its media rights deals several years early with the hopes of securing billions of dollars in fee increases from its…
The World Cup did not get off to a hot start for South Africa on Thursday. The 2010 World Cup host faced off against one of this year’s host nations, Mexico, to kick off the 2026 World Cup, and it was never a contest. From the jump, the Mexican team looked dominant, scoring in the…
Among the festivities inherent to the opening day of a World Cup, Fox found a moment to strike a more somber tone during its coverage. During Fox Sports’ pregame show leading up to the opening World Cup match between Mexico and South Africa, host Rebecca Lowe paid tribute to beloved soccer reporter and former Fox…
The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand has been all over ESPN’s plans for who will call their eight non-Monday Night Football games this upcoming season. In his latest report, it sounds like it’s not a question of who, but which announcers. Marchand reported Thursday that ESPN is “zeroing in” on splitting those games between play-by-play broadcasters Dave…
Alexi Lalas isn’t worried about the United States serving as the primary host of the FIFA men’s World Cup this summer. In fact, he thinks it will reinforce President Donald Trump’s commitment to the sport and his legacy as “the soccer president.” In an appearance on The Ryen Russillo Show released Thursday as Fox’s coverage of…
Fox has been an NFL broadcasting partner since 1994, but Mike Florio could see that longstanding relationship coming to an end in the near future. On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee held a lengthy hearing on the NFL’s broadcast antitrust exemption amid concerns that the league has been skirting the exemption’s limits, which arguably apply…
Fans learned earlier on Thursday, just hours before the World Cup began, that Fox had opted to utilize the FIFA-mandated mid-half hydration breaks to air full-screen advertising, a stark departure from usual soccer broadcasting standards that see each half air unencumbered by commercials. Suffice it to say, it didn’t take long for these commercials to…
On May 9, 2025, Pablo Torre reported that Jordon Hudson, Bill Belichick’s girlfriend, had been banned from the University of North Carolina’s football facility. On May 9, 2026, Hudson made a massive public records request to the school, presumably to identify Torre’s source or sources. A few days later, UNC denied Torre’s report, which alleged…
ESPN never managed to lure Peyton Manning as its top NFL game analyst after years of aggressive pursuit, but the network’s production deal with Manning’s Omaha Productions has become far more expansive than a traditional announcer contract. As reports swirl that Pat McAfee is negotiating a new contract with the Worldwide Leader worth as much as $60…
The deplorable actions by a small portion of Knicks fans continue to besmirch the reputation of New Yorkers, and Stephen A. Smith has seen enough. After New York hosted their first NBA Finals game since 1999 Monday night, several fights broke out, with people wearing Spurs gear being targeted and attacked by groups of Knicks…
As the NBA has evolved toward a more spread-out, perimeter-style of play over the past two decades, Inside the NBA star Charles Barkley has been notoriously against teams’ reliance on the three-ball. And as Barkley watched the San Antonio Spurs collapse at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, he…
The vibes have been off the charts in New York City as the Knicks have marched within one game of winning their first NBA championship since 1973. There have, however, been a few bad apples in the Big Apple who don’t reflect well on the fanbase. Following the Knicks’ Game 3 loss, five NYPD officers…
What Monica McNutt said isn’t necessarily surprising or new. We’ve all done it. The difference is that McNutt said it about Taylor Swift, and on a hot mic. The New York Knicks radio analyst and ESPN commentator went viral for doing something we’ve all done—questioning someone’s fandom. Unfortunately for McNutt, that someone was Swift, who…
As Mitch Johnson and De’Aaron Fox bear the brunt of the blame for the San Antonio Spurs’ collapse before the New York Knicks in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Tiki Barber is holding Victor Wembanyama accountable. Wembanyama took a break from sketching a Hamlet sculpture, left the quietest room in the world, and covered his…
NBC’s Sunday Night Baseball drew its largest audience of the season last week, as Major League Baseball continues to post strong early-season viewership numbers. The extra-innings San Francisco Giants-Chicago Cubs game averaged 2.34 million viewers on Sunday, June 7 (2.6 million when including Adobe Analytics), the largest Sunday Night Baseball audience of the season for NBC.…
No offense to ESPN’s camera people who capture nearly every angle of every big sports moment, but Kirk Herbstreit may have had the best video of OG Anunoby’s game-winner. Yes, that Kirk Herbstreit. As Monica McNutt questioned Taylor Swift’s fandom, ESPN’s lead college football analyst from Ohio was quietly sitting courtside at Madison Square Garden for…
With just the United Football League championship remaining, viewership for the UFL on Fox, ABC, and ESPN is up marginally year-over-year. Still, the modest gains do little to answer lingering questions about the league’s ability to grow. Regular series games on Fox averaged 670,000 viewers in 2026, up 4% from 2025. Across all ESPN networks…
The Athletic is temporarily opening its doors. The New York Times-owned subscription outlet announced Wednesday that its 2026 FIFA World Cup coverage will be free to read in its app through July 19, the day of the final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. NYT-owned The Athletic, normally paywalled, says it is making…
Among the many micro-controversies at play in the lead-up to this summer’s World Cup centers on the mid-half mandatory hydration breaks FIFA has implemented for the tournament. (Most World Cup-related controversies qualify as “micro” following 2022 in Qatar.) The decision by FIFA to mandate these breaks can at least be spun as being in the…
Landon Donovan spent his playing career helping define soccer in the United States. Now, as the World Cup comes to American soil, he’ll be trying to define it for viewers instead. The two identities don’t always go hand in hand. In soccer, as in every sport, being great at the game and being great at…
This originally appeared in Tuesday morning’s edition of The A Block, Awful Announcing’s daily newsletter with the latest sports media news, commentary, and analysis. Sign up here to be the first to know everything happening in the sports media world. Whenever the World Cup rolls around, the conversation in American sports media inevitably turns to…